Truth is, that in all my experience, I can't think of a reason why one would.
How exactly does a $500.00 power cable make your system sound better?
RFI would be a possibility, it might act as a filter, or it might act as an aerial, either might be perceived as better. 🙂
Might, possibly, could... How about: "Well it works like this...."
I've been up one side of this thing dozens of times and always it ends up the same way... They start name calling, hurling insults, getting all bent out of shape... and they have never, not once, offered even the first shred of proof.
This is electronics, a science... not a religion.
I've been up one side of this thing dozens of times and always it ends up the same way... They start name calling, hurling insults, getting all bent out of shape... and they have never, not once, offered even the first shred of proof.
This is electronics, a science... not a religion.
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Nobody gives a **** about your qualifications. You're a new guy with a huge ego who has NO IDEA of the scale of collective expertise on this forum. Yes, there arr dumb posts and dumb threads, but if you have an open mind you can learn from the odd gem to be found here.
The ruling says he did not mislead his customers in his advertising. It does not say that his cords made one whit of difference in the sound of an audio system.
To the contrary. I know very well what kind of wisdom is here, it's one of the reasons I joined.
Obviously it would depend on the audio system, whether it had adequate immunity to mains borne RFI to begin with
In all this bickering, nobody seems to have addressed my question. I don't think sticking a linear LDO after an SMPS as a practical solution answers my question, which was more basic than that.
I think about 90% of the forum was building chipamps with no RFI considerations about 15 years ago.
What is a super-regulator anyway? I'm familiar with the Jung-Didden design, but I'd have to know what actual requirements need to be met to be called a super-regulator.
There aren't any absolutely silent switching designs because there is, at some level, a trade-off between efficiency and switch edge rates. A SMPS with sinusoidal waveform can be made but the efficiency is going to be poor, which may defeat the purpose of it in the first place. There are a lot of different switching topologies and there are some very quiet ones, but it really depends on the requirements. You don't see a lot of custom off-line SMPS or DC-DC converters here because it's beyond the capabilities of many.
Yep, standard retort #3 ... "My hearing is better than yours"...
Who says I don't hear the differences?
Who says that when someone says "Now listen to how much better this is" I don't hear it sounding better?
I am as susceptible to Confirmation Bias and what my friend calls Directed Hearing as anyone else. The power of suggestion is not something to be ignored. The difference is that I know I am succeptible to it and seek the means to verify the event in some way that does not rely upon human frailty. If I can't verify what I'm hearing... Then it's likely I was just being deceived, yet again.
You say you've been at this for a long time. So have I and I know there are plenty of people here who have been at it at least as long as I have, and have delved even deeper into it that I have...
So lets take a little walk down memory lane...
Does anyone remember the early days of Monster Cable? Remember pushing the switch back and forth between "Ordinary" wire and Monster wire and marvelling at how much better the Monster cable was? Well, they were lying to you... one side of that switch was wired with telephone wire. It did sound different... but it was because the "ordinary" side was totally inadequate for a speaker load, not because the Monster cable was better. How do I know this? I got asked to fix a couple of their showroom demo units.
Since those days very aggressive marketing companies have been using various tactics to convince "audiophiles" of their "golden ear" skills. Some, like AudioQuest even put on elaborate demonstrations at audio shows, trying to convince people their cables were better... and people lapped it up. The idea that you could actually hear the difference is very seductive, it's a compliment to your skills and a confirmation of your membership in the audiophile community... it says "I belong"... because I heard it too. But there's a small problem with that. These companies, more than once, have been caught out in the dirty tricks... comparing their cables to defective cheap cables, carefully priming you so that to not hear the difference was a failure, it meant you weren't a real audiophile. One even got busted when it was discovered they had an equalizer hidden in their display case...
Now fast forward to today... Look what we've become. We are a group fractured along the line between fact and fiction, we scream back and forth, fighting like school kids over literally nothing. Sucked in by well crafted, but entirely disingenuous marketing by companies who care about nothing but getting your money, convinced that our hearing is the last and only arbiter of good electronics and willing to severely trash on anyone who disagrees with our consumer training.... and yes, that's what it is, training to be a better consumer, to spend more money, to thank people for ripping us off and to help them sell their crap among our friends.
The entire "Golden Ear" thing has been one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever.
Yes, I hear the difference... but before I fall for $800.00 power cords, $5,000 RCA cables and stupidity like power regenerators and crystals --before I shell out thousands of dollars-- I need to confirm what I am hearing by other means... and that's where the test equipment comes into play. If I can't analyse it and quantify it, I'm left no choice to believe that I've been tricked, yet again.
The same rationale applies to the Analog vs Digital feud and the one over SMPS vs Linear Power supplies... not to mention OpAmps, Capacitors, Transistors and all the other stuff people like to mess with. Yes there are times when we genuinely do find an improvement by removing a manufacturer's compromises... but most often we are simply tampering with perfectly good gear, because we can... because our Golden Ear training tells us that simply listening is good enough...
The Analog companies argue against Digital ... because they don't have digital equipment to sell. Companies like PS Audio argue against SMPS because they don't know how to design one (Which is deeply ironic because both their Stellar and Sprout lines use ICEPower Modules with built in SMPS.)... and on and on it goes.
Isn't it about time we opened our eyes and started seeing what is being done to us? Seriously... these big companies have been lying to us all for more than half a century and the evidence of it is right before our very ears.
Who says I don't hear the differences?
Who says that when someone says "Now listen to how much better this is" I don't hear it sounding better?
I am as susceptible to Confirmation Bias and what my friend calls Directed Hearing as anyone else. The power of suggestion is not something to be ignored. The difference is that I know I am succeptible to it and seek the means to verify the event in some way that does not rely upon human frailty. If I can't verify what I'm hearing... Then it's likely I was just being deceived, yet again.
You say you've been at this for a long time. So have I and I know there are plenty of people here who have been at it at least as long as I have, and have delved even deeper into it that I have...
So lets take a little walk down memory lane...
Does anyone remember the early days of Monster Cable? Remember pushing the switch back and forth between "Ordinary" wire and Monster wire and marvelling at how much better the Monster cable was? Well, they were lying to you... one side of that switch was wired with telephone wire. It did sound different... but it was because the "ordinary" side was totally inadequate for a speaker load, not because the Monster cable was better. How do I know this? I got asked to fix a couple of their showroom demo units.
Since those days very aggressive marketing companies have been using various tactics to convince "audiophiles" of their "golden ear" skills. Some, like AudioQuest even put on elaborate demonstrations at audio shows, trying to convince people their cables were better... and people lapped it up. The idea that you could actually hear the difference is very seductive, it's a compliment to your skills and a confirmation of your membership in the audiophile community... it says "I belong"... because I heard it too. But there's a small problem with that. These companies, more than once, have been caught out in the dirty tricks... comparing their cables to defective cheap cables, carefully priming you so that to not hear the difference was a failure, it meant you weren't a real audiophile. One even got busted when it was discovered they had an equalizer hidden in their display case...
Now fast forward to today... Look what we've become. We are a group fractured along the line between fact and fiction, we scream back and forth, fighting like school kids over literally nothing. Sucked in by well crafted, but entirely disingenuous marketing by companies who care about nothing but getting your money, convinced that our hearing is the last and only arbiter of good electronics and willing to severely trash on anyone who disagrees with our consumer training.... and yes, that's what it is, training to be a better consumer, to spend more money, to thank people for ripping us off and to help them sell their crap among our friends.
The entire "Golden Ear" thing has been one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever.
Yes, I hear the difference... but before I fall for $800.00 power cords, $5,000 RCA cables and stupidity like power regenerators and crystals --before I shell out thousands of dollars-- I need to confirm what I am hearing by other means... and that's where the test equipment comes into play. If I can't analyse it and quantify it, I'm left no choice to believe that I've been tricked, yet again.
The same rationale applies to the Analog vs Digital feud and the one over SMPS vs Linear Power supplies... not to mention OpAmps, Capacitors, Transistors and all the other stuff people like to mess with. Yes there are times when we genuinely do find an improvement by removing a manufacturer's compromises... but most often we are simply tampering with perfectly good gear, because we can... because our Golden Ear training tells us that simply listening is good enough...
The Analog companies argue against Digital ... because they don't have digital equipment to sell. Companies like PS Audio argue against SMPS because they don't know how to design one (Which is deeply ironic because both their Stellar and Sprout lines use ICEPower Modules with built in SMPS.)... and on and on it goes.
Isn't it about time we opened our eyes and started seeing what is being done to us? Seriously... these big companies have been lying to us all for more than half a century and the evidence of it is right before our very ears.
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A note from the clean up crew: Please do not quote the entire post just above yours. It's just clutter and we don't need to read the same post twice. This is mentioned in the RULES section of the forum. Clean up has been done. Help us keep the forum clean!